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Saturday, 22 November 2014

Interview with YAMA

Yama
first came to my attention way back in 2011 when I featured their
excellent debut EP – Seaquake. It won a lot of praise within the
Doom/Stoner Metal community for it's heavy mix of
Sludge/Grunge/Stoner riffs.

Well
3 years later Yama are back with their stunning debut album –
Ananta – which Håkan reviewed recently. Ananta is a thrilling ride of intense riffs and even crazier
vocals from start to finish that will have you coming back for more.
I have already ordered the Vinyl for this brilliant album. That's how
great it is.

Yama
have performed gigs with bands such as Uncle Acid and The Deadbeats,
Orange Sunshine, Glowsun, Huata, Dopethrone, NAAM and Jex Thoth to
name but a few. So these guys are very highly regarded in the Stoner
Metal scene.

Yama
have kindly agreed an interview with ourselves at Sludgelord HQ

Q1
– Hi guys. How are things with you all today.

Y:
Doing great Steve! We’re really thrilled that our album is finally
coming out. We already recorded it quite a while ago actually. But
due to several factors it took a bit longer to release. Once this
release ‘thing’ is done we are – of course – ready to conquer
the seven seas!

Q2
– Can you give a brief history to our readers of how the band came
about and where it is today.

Y:
Our history goes back to 2009. Sjoerd (guitars) and Alex (vocals)
were housemates back then. It all started in a smoky student’s
place. In 2010 the band was formed, at first called ‘Les Ailes’
(meaning ‘the Wings’ in French). Later on we changed the name
into ‘Yama’. In 2011 we launched our EP ‘Seaquake’ and got
really cool responses and orders from around the globe (we’ve got
orders from stonerheads from Vladivostok and India for instance, how
awesome is that?!). Now three years later we did a bunch of great
gigs and are ready for a next step. We like to reach even more lovers
of the heavy riff!

Q3
– Why did you choose the name YAMA. Any specific meaning to the
band.

Y:
We were looking for a name that both covered the style of the music
and the lyrics. The music consists of a wide range of influences. Our
lyrics have mythological or philosophical themes. We are really
interested in religion and the ‘condition humaine’. One day Alex
read about the Vedic deity ‘Yama’. We were really attracted to
both the Indian/Vedic and the Tibetan Buddhist narratives about Yama.
Yama is the God of Death and Illusion, spinning the wheel of life.
But Yama is also a term that’s used in several forms of Yoga. Here
Yama means something like abstinence or the cessation of the Ego.
Well, we could go on for hours on this topic. Let’s keep our focus
on the band haha.

In
short, both the wonderful images (especially the Tibetan ones, you
should really look that up!) and the spiritual and philosophical
meaning of Yama are an inspiration for us.

Q4
– How would you describe your own sound. As I feel it's best coming
from the band themselves. Plus you have tons of different vibes going
on.

Y:
We think it’s a more or less a synthesis of the music we listen to
in the present and our musical backgrounds. Sjoerd has his background
in music ranging from metal to psychedelia and improvised music.
Peter (bass) originated from the ‘kvlt’ world of black metal.
Joep (drums) used to play in punk/garage bands. Alex used to sing in
a heavy metal band as well as a blues rock group.

More
directly our style is influenced by bands we all listen too. Varying
from heavy 70ies (Sabbath, Led Zep) to doom (Yob, Electric Wizard) to
grunge (Alice in Chains) to folky and bluesy stuff and everything in
between.

Q5
– We have to talk about your new album – Ananta - So are you
excited, nervous or thrilled what people are going to make of it.

Y:
Of course you’ll never know if people will dig it. Our EP was very
well received, but Ananta is a very different album. It has more
compact songs, it’s more ‘in-your-face’ you might say. This
goes for the production as well, we’ve gone for a cleaner, crisper
sound this time which is a change from the Seaquake sound. It’s
still heavy as a ton of bricks, of course.

Q6
– Was it a hard or easy album to write and record for. As you have
a lot of different sounds going on with the album.

Y:
Well the writing process was spread out over a long period of time.
It wasn’t like we planned a couple of weeks writing before hitting
the studio. Some of the songs date from around the time the EP came
out (like Hollow or Anchor in Time), others (like SOTCII and Ruach
Elohim) were relatively new. We take quite some time – maybe a bit
too long sometimes- for the songs to evolve. Maybe that’s why the
songs and our sound as a whole are that varied. The recording process
itself was intensive but it went pretty well. We took our time to
make sure everything sounded the way we wanted it to sound and we are
proud of the result!

Q7
– What influenced you when writing and recording the album.

Y:
This really depends on the song. For instance, SOTCI is primarily
written by Sjoerd and Alex. What inspired us was a piece by Franz
Schubert called ‘der Erlkönig’, based on a poem by Goethe. When
you read the lyrics you’ll definitely see the similarities. But the
main riff during the verses echoes some of the violin lines from ‘der
Erlkönig’ as well. In most instances the writing of the
instrumental part of the song and the scope and content of the
lyrics are strongly related.

Q8
– Why did you choose the name Ananta for the title of your album.
Does it have any specific meaning to you as a band.

Y:
The central theme in our lyrics is the hubris of mankind. Meaning
that mankind puts itself on an intellectual pedestal: we are the
Enlightened species, we even succeeded God! Or, we are the ones that
are ‘chosen’, we are the ones that are created in His own image.

Ironically
mankind is especially capable in creating ‘welfare’ societies
wherein people get ill from the air they breathe in, the food they
take and the medication that’s meant to cure them. Mankind is also
superior in ruining the environment, ruining a (financial, religious,
ideological) system they’ve created themselves and in using their
superb intelligence for a systematic and scientifically brilliant way
of massacring their own species.

This
‘bitter sweet symphony’ seems a never ending story to us. Which
led us to the Greek mythological figure of ‘ouroboros’ (the
serpent biting his own tail). We found out that there’s a Vedic
equivalent of this Greek mythological figure, namely: Ananta (meaning
both ‘thousand headed serpent’ as ‘the endless’). We found a
story – there are also several paintings - wherein Vishnu lays down
on Ananta, sailing over the sea of finitude.

This
image really appealed to us, because it visualizes and summarizes the
theme of ‘infinity versus finitude’ and ‘hubris versus modesty’
really well. Next to that the figure and meaning of Ananta is
strongly related to Yama. Also a good thing in terms of artwork of
course.

Q9
– Who designed the awesome album cover and how much input did you
have into the overall design of the album cover.

Y:
It’s our good friend and really talented illustrator Maarten
Donders (www.maartendonders.com). He did the artwork for our EP as
well. But he also provided artwork for the Roadburn Festival and
bands like Monomyth, Blues Pills and Brutus, a.o. We told Maarten
about our ideas as we said before. But we decided to let him free.
His creative mind, excellent artistic skills and our idea led to this
– we agree on this one - awesome artwork!

Q10
– What does the album cover actually represent to you as a band.

Y:
The Ananta artwork symbolizes the most important lyrical themes on
this record. Apart from being this beautiful philosophical metaphor
as we've mentioned above, we liked the aesthetics of it as well. It’s
a really cool symbol in that it suits both our musical style and our
lyrics. The album cover is a strong, iconic picture, creating a
psychedelic atmosphere and it also represents kind of an adventure.
We’ve looked at it quite a lot as you can imagine. But every time
you look at it you’ll discover something new. A cool detail you
didn’t see before. We hope that this is also true for our music,
which is a mix of different styles and influences.

Q11 –
Now this album has been a very long time coming. Can you explain the
long delay since your debut EP which was released way back in
2011.

Y: As mentioned before this is partly due
to our writing process. Which can be described as ‘evolving’, or:
a bit slow.. The recording process was rather smooth, but then we
experienced several technical difficulties. We wanted a (re)master to
be done by a good friend of ours. But the transaction of the recorded
files went wrong. Which took a lot of time. It was also pretty hard
to find a proper record label.

...So
that’s sort of an explanation?

Q12
– Which bands and artists influenced you all as musicians. Any
particular album that stands out that made you decide to become a
musician.

Y:
As we've mentioned, our musical backgrounds are pretty wide ranging.
But we can name a few common influences: Kyuss, Black Sabbath, Led
Zeppelin, Goatsnake, Yob, Alice in Chains, 16 horsepower/Wovenhand…
More beneath the surface I think all our old time favourites are
involved. Ranging from black metal to delta blues, from jazz to
garage.

Q13
– Looking at your in-depth gig history profile on BandCamp you have
played a lot of gigs over the last few years or so. You have played
with a lot of great bands and in some awesome festivals such as
Roadburn. What has been your favourite gigging moment so far and the
reasons why.

Y:
The Roadburn show was outstanding of course! Especially because 3 of
us are born and raised in Tilburg. So it was a strange mixture of
playing in your local pub and performing on one of the most special
and high rated stoner/doom festivals of the world.. The reaction of
the crowd was great, so it really gave us a confidence boost. The
gigs with Uncle Acid were pretty cool as well. For example, the show
in Amsterdam, where we hadn’t played before. Our capital is
well-known for an extremely busy music scene, with a lot of bands
competing for the limelight. To be debuting at the legendary Melkweg
venue in front of some 500 people was amazing. We really enjoyed our
shows in Germany as well. Such an enthusiastic and generous crowd. We
definitely want to go back there!

Q14
– Do you have any plans to do an extensive European Tour in the
near future.

Y:
We’re aiming to play a bunch of stoner or metal festivals this
summer!

Q15
– Congrats on getting your album released on Vinyl. Are you
releasing that album yourselves or through a record label.

Y:
Thanks man! We released it through ‘Lighttown Fidelity Records’.
It’s a relatively small Dutch record label, owned and run by
Matthijs, a really dedicated guy. He really has heart for the music
and the artists. We are very excited to be part of his roster.

Q16
– What is your musical setup when playing live or recording new
material. Do you have an advanced setup or basic setup.

Y:
Pretty basic actually. Joep (drums) has a raw rebuild Tama Rockstar
from the late 80’s. Peter (bass) uses an Orange Terror Bass head
along with big muff and bass juice fuzz/distortion. Sjoerd (guitar)
uses a Blackstar amplifier and a few stomp boxes. Alex spices up his
sound with a bullet mic (Green Bullet).

Q17
– What is the song-writing dynamic in the band. Is it down to one
individual or a group collective.

Y:
This really varies. Initially most of the songs were written by
Sjoerd (guitar) and Alex. Sjoerd is still the ‘Riff Meister’. But
everyone in the band plays guitar or bass, so everyone provides input
on the different parts. A few examples: the opening and closing riffs
of SOTCII were written by Peter (bass) and the opening riff of
‘Migraine City’ and most riffs of ‘Vy’ are written by Alex.
But also Joep (drums) plays a key role in the writing process,
especially when it comes to grooves, dynamics and details. So you
could say it’s a mix of both individual and collective endeavours.

Q18
– Apart from the new album release, what other plans do you have
over the next 12 months or so. Anything exciting you would like to
share with us.

Y:
Well, we will soon launch a promo clip we recorded. So that’s
exciting. And we also have plans for shooting a full video clip. And
we mentioned the summer festival tour. Next to that we are constantly
writing new songs. So there won’t be a three year gap between
‘Ananta’ and the next release ;-).

Q19
– Do you find it hard being in a band in today's current climate.
If you could change anything about the Stoner/Doom/Sludge Metal
scene. What would it be and why.

Y:
We love this scene. The people are open-minded, fraternal and there
are a lot of good bands. A totally different climate than, for
instance, the more mainstream metal scene. The only thing is, which
is in a way pretty logical, it’s a small scene. The biggest
festivals like Roadburn, have a couple of thousand visitors. If you
compare that to Wacken Open Air or Metal Days.. More and more stoner
bands are playing these major festivals, but still, the ‘market’
seems to be rather small.

On
the other hand, a bigger market could also do harm to the special
atmosphere we experience at specific stoner festivals around Europe.

Q20
– With 2014 drawing to a close, what have been your favourite
records this year.

Y:
The new albums by Yob and Pallbearer are our common favourites we
could say. Alex is really fond of the new Robert Plant record
(‘Lullabies and the ceaseless roar’). Peter mostly has the new
Sólstafir and Wovenhand albums on repeat at the moment. Joep is in
love with Goat’s 'Commune'. And Sjoerd is really into Sturgill
Simpsons' sophomore album 'Metamodern Sounds in Country Music'.

Q21
– Before you go do you have anything to say to your fans.

Y:
Well it’s corny, but still: we really like to thank all people that
support our stuff. It is indescribably cool to get all this nice
reactions during and after shows. But also many e-mails or facebook
messages from people just saying they dig our music. We really
appreciate that!

Well
guys thanks for this. All the best with your debut album as it's a
brilliant record which we rate very highly here at Sludgelord HQ.

Words
by Steve Howe and YAMA

Thanks
to YAMA for taking the time out to talk to us here at Sludgelord HQ.
You can buy Ananta on DD from BandCamp. CD and Vinyl from LightTownFidelity.

Band Submissions

To those bands who have recently issued their first demo or album via bandcamp and would like to be featured on our 666 Pack Review or considered for a full review or stream please contact Aaron via email including your EPK, band bio, album file or download code, including artwork.

To those bands issuing their sophomore record and so on and would like to be considered for a review or stream on the blog. Get in touch using the same address above

We will consider bands from any genre but exclusively stoner, sludge, doom, psych, post-metal, experimental, black-metal etc. (Whilst I would like to respond to every email, this is not always possible.) Thanks